Portable tramway.



Patented Mar. 4, |90

J. H. GARDNER. PORTABLE TBA-"WAY.

(A licatiufl filed 0m. 2s,

(No Model.)

- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN H. GARDNER, OF NEYV ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

PORTABLE TRAM WAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 694,851, dated March 4,1902.

Application filed October 28, 1901. Serial No. 80,268. No model.)

To all whom Lt may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN H. GARDNER, a citizen of the United States,residing at New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State ofLouisiana, have invented new and useful Improvements in PortableTramways, of which the following is a specification.

In the construction of wharves, railway and other trestles, and similarwork in which piles are used for the substructure it frequently happensthat because of the lack of water or the presence of obstructionsit isinexpedient and in some instances impossibletodrive the piles from abarge; also, that when the work is to be erected over uneven, soft, ormarshy ground the construction of a false foundation capable ofsustaining the heavy pile-driving machinery is entailed and, incdnsequence, the cost of the work greatly increased.

The object of my invention is to provide a portable tramway comprising aplurality of track-sections in combination with a car havin g wheels ofpeculiar and advantageous construction, the car being designed to beequipped with a boiler, an engine, a piledriver, and a davit or craneand adapted to be supported by its own work as the construc tionproceeds. In other words, as the construction of the work proceeds theequipment of the caris adapted to raise and swing the track-sections oneby one from their positions in rear of the car to the piles driven infront of the car. This is materially advantageous, because the car afterbeing first mounted on blocking to the height required is supported byits own worlnand can therefore be operatedindefinitely without thenecessity of employing further blocking or false work, with the resultthat the work can be carried on very expeditiouslyand at a minimum cost.

With the foregoing in mind the invention will be fully understood fromthe following description and claim, when taken in con-' junction withthe annexed drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan view of a portion ofmy improved tramway; Fig. 2, a detail longitudinal section illustratingthe car on the tramway; Fig. 3, an enlarged broken transverse section ofthe same. 7

Referring by letter to said drawings, A A are piles driven in the bed ofa body of water to be equipped with a boiler, engine, pileequipped witha chain (1, as shown, for the or in the ground and arranged in pairs atsuitable intervals apart"; B B, transverse caps arranged upon andconnected to each pair of piles; O G,'track-seotions arranged in alongitudinal series on the support formed by the several pairs of pilesand caps thereon, and D a car which, as before stated, is designeddriver, and davit or crane. These latter may be and preferably are ofthe ordinary wellknown description, and I have therefore connection ofthe lifting and swinging means on the car. The stringers and railsthereon of the several sections 0 may be and preferably are arranged acommon distance apart, this in order that the ends of the stringers andrails of any two sections may be lapped after the manner shown in Fig.1.

The car D comprises a platform E, for sup porting the before-describedmachinery, and wheels F, upon which the platform is mounted in anyapproved manner. These wheels F are peculiar inthat they have inner andouter peripheral flanges e, an intermediate periph eral flange f, andinner and outer treads g h, and when used in conjunction with the lappedrails of sections 0 they are materially advantageous, as will presentlyappear.

In practice, with the car D blocked up to the height required, I set aplurality of pairs of piles A and connect the same with capsB, afterwhich I arrange a plurality of'track-sections on the support thusafforded,the ends 1 of the stringers a of the sections being lapped onthe caps 13, as shown. I then run the car from the false work previouslymentioned on'the tramway formed as stated, and when this is done it willbe observed that the treads gof the car-wheels F will engage and travelon the inner rails of the several track-sections as laid, while theouter treads h of said wheels will engage and travel on the outer railsof the track-sections; also, that when the car rests on two of thetrack-sections its Wheels will engage all of the rails thereof,andthereby hold said sections against lateral movement with respect to eachother. Now when it is desired to extend the wharf, trestle, or otherwork having the substructure of piles I move the car D to the forwardend of the tramway and drive two piles in advance of the tramway andconnect the same by a cap B. I then by means of the (lavit or crane onthe car raise one of the sections 0 back of the car, preferably the rearone, and swing it around to a position in front of the car and place itupon the cap B of the newly-set pair of piles and the cap B of the nextpair of piles to the rear and lap its rear ends against the forward endsof the stringers of the next section 0 to the rear in the manner beforedescribed. This operation is repeated until the desired number of pilesare driven to complete the wharf, bridge, or trestle-work to be built orto close a crevasse in a levee or the like, and it obviously may beexpeditiously and cheaply conducted, inasmuch as the car is supported byits own work, and the construction of false work incident to thebuilding of the trestle or other work is obviated. It will also beappreciated that incident to the building of the trestle or other workthe track-sections on which the car is placed in the first instance maybe repeatedly used, which contributes materially to the cheapness of thestructure. The stringers a of the several track-sections are obviouslyadapted to be lapped with a view of holding their rails inproperjuxtaposition much more readily than they could be placed end toend and connected together for the same purpose. Moreover, when lappedas stated the track-sections tend to hold each other against casuallateral movement or displacement, and they need not, therefore, beconnected together.

When desirable, the rails of the track-sections, which may be of iron orany other suitable material, may. be employed without the stringers orsil1s-that is, may be laid directly on the pile-caps or othersupport-without departing from the scope of my invention.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure byLetters Patent, 1s

The combination ofasuitable support, portable track-sections each ofwhich comprises two parallel rails permanently connected together; therails of the sections being arranged a common distance apart, and thesaid sections being arranged on the support with the end of one rail ofone section disposed at the inner side ofthe corresponding rail of theother section, and the end of the other rail of the first-mentionedsection arranged at the outer side of the remaining rail of thesecondmentioned section, and a car, the treads of which are arranged toengage and travel on the parallel. lapped rails of the sections.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

JOHN H. GARDNER. Witnesses:

WALTER F. POYNOT, M. A. GLAsE.

